While the construction of a multibillion-peso facility that will link three overhead rail systems in Metro Manila will disrupt a road-development project and increase congestion in the shorter term, the said infrastructure will help ease train-commuting woes in the long run.
All of the stakeholders in the common-station deal—SM Prime Holdings Inc., Universal LRT Corp., Ayala Land Inc., Light Rail Manila Corp., the Department of Public Works and Highways, and the Light Rail Transit Authority—agreed on Wednesday to build a single station between SM North Edsa and TriNoma, ending what officials called as a seven-year deadlock plagued with legal tussles.
But while they agreed to build a common alignment to connect the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1, the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 and the future MRT 7, specific details on how to execute and who will fund the deal will still have to be threshed out.
“I tried to get some informal consensus. We hope to have the formal groundbreaking before the end of this year. Once the groundbreaking has been done then you can start counting based on engineering design. Completion will take about two-and-a-half to three years,” Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade said in a media briefing on Wednesday.
Detailed engineering and design, according to Transportation Assistant Secretary for Legal Affairs Leah Merida-Quiambao, is being undertaken by the department.
“The designs are being done as we speak right now; we just have a couple of remaining issues to be resolved. We’ve had considerable progress with the design,” she said on the sidelines of the briefing.
“It’s being done by the engineers of the department along with the consultations of the principals.”
Transportation Spokesman Cherie Mercado-Santos noted that the final cost of the common station will only be determined after the engineering and design have been finished. “We have to finalize the engineering details, but it shouldn’t be far from the estimate earlier,” she said.
Former Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya had pegged the cost of the common station at a range of P1.4 billion to P2.6 billion, depending on the location and the schematics.
She added that this may cause a bit of a congestion in the North Edsa area, typical of construction activities on roads. “But we hope to minimize it as much as possible,” she said.
When all parties agreed to build the facility on middle ground—at the Paramount Building—a road-development project was affected. But, according to Quiambao, the public-works department was amenable to it.
The public-works agency initially planned to build an overpass in the area. But with the common-station deal, the department decided to build a depressed road instead.
When built, the common station will provide easy access to both malls and major roads like Edsa, and will provide a common concourse or atrium to facilitate easy train-line transfer.
The agreement signed will end the ongoing stay order issued by the Supreme Court against the transportation department from pursuing the project. To recall, SM Prime sued the previous transportation department for changing the location of the common station even with an existing naming-rights contract with the government.
Former transportation officials decided to move the location due to its cost benefits.
Executives of the stakeholders agreed that the issues should be ended, hence their agreement.
“We will see some resolution to this issue. We will really support what the new government is going to bring about to us,” SM Prime President Hans Sy said.
For his part, Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said: “Infrastructure is something that needs cooperation and coordination. I think it’s a pleasure for us to be one participant to this critical railway system.”
Manuel V. Pangilinan, who chairs Metro Pacific Investments Corp., added that his company supports the government’s efforts of decongesting Metro Manila. “It is very difficult to say no to a fellow Bedan,” he said, referring to Tugade.
“We have waited with uncertainty for the last six years. Now we are looking at fruition in two-and-a-half to three years,” Tugade said.
Such an agreement will also remove one of the roadblocks to the building of the MRT 7, a train system that will connect Bulacan to Quezon City. It is scheduled for completion by 2019.